The present disclosure relates to a sample handling device, a sample identification device, a system for sample handling, a diagnostics device and a method for handling a sample in the field of automatic or semi-automatic diagnostics, such as in the field of high-throughput diagnostics.
In the field of laboratory diagnostics, specifically in the field of high throughput diagnostics using automatic or semi-automatic systems, there exists a need for high-throughput sample handling of samples such as biological specimens. Very often, the samples are provided in vessels and are transported successively or in parallel to the various handling or processing stations.
A major issue in sample handling is the issue of sample identification. Thus, there exists a need for tracking specific samples such as specific specimens and, moreover, the need for identifying samples present in a specific processing station, such as in an analytical station, of the system. For identifying vessels and/or samples, various techniques are known in the art. Thus, in many cases, vessels are provided with one or more identifiers, such as optical and/or electronic identifiers, specifically unique identifiers, which may be detected optically and/or electronically. For this purpose, as an example, bar codes may be used as optical identifiers and/or RFID tags as electronic identifiers. Reading information contained in the identifier by a reading station, however, in many cases requires orienting the vessel and/or the sample in a specific way, such as in a specific orientation towards a reader such as an optical barcode reader.
Despite the advantages implied by known devices and methods, some major technical challenges remain. Thus, generally, known devices and methods for providing a sample vessel and a dedicated and well-defined position and orientation generally are voluminous and expensive. Further, whenever a vessel rotation is required, a rotor and at least one element pressing the vessel against the rotor are typically needed. The use of a pressure element, however, requires additional space which typically is difficult to provide in compact handling systems. Further, the pressure element typically has to be mounted in a movable or pivotable way, such as in a slidable fashion, which requires additional drives and/or sensors.
Therefore, there is a need for a sample handling device, a sample identification device, a system for sample handling, a diagnostics device and a method for sample handling that require a low construction volume and which are implementable at low cost and which, still, are reliable and enable a high throughput handling of samples.